S.L. 345.24 Art. 3Trading process and finalisation of transactions in an MTF and an OTF. S.L. 370.05. Cap. 345.

(1) Maltese Investment firms and market operators operating an MTF or an OTF, shall, in addition to meeting the organisational requirements prescribed in the applicable provisions of the Investment Services Act (Control of Assets) Regulations, the Investment Services Rules for Investment Services Providers and the Conduct of Business Rulebook, comply with the following requirements:

(a) they shall establish transparent rules and procedures for fair and orderly trading and establish objective criteria for the efficient execution of orders;

(b) they shall have arrangements for the sound management of the technical operations of the facility, including the establishment of effective contingency arrangements to cope with risks of systems disruption;

(c) they shall establish transparent rules regarding the criteria for determining the financial instruments that can be traded under the systems of the MTF or the OTF;

(d) where applicable, they shall provide, or are satisfied that there is access to, sufficient publicly available information to enable its users to form an investment judgement, taking into account both the nature of the users and the types of instruments traded;

(e) they shall establish, publish, maintain and implement transparent and non-discriminatory rules, based on objective criteria, governing access to the facility of the MTF or the OTF;

(f) they shall have arrangements to identify clearly and manage the potential adverse consequences for the operation of the MTF or the OTF, or for the members or participants and users, of any conflict of interest between the interest of the MTF, the OTF, their owners or the Maltese investment firm or market operator operating the MTF or the OTF and the sound functioning of the MTF or the OTF; and

(g) they shall clearly inform its members or participants of their respective responsibilities for the settlement of the transactions executed in that facility. Maltese investment firms and market operators operating an MTF or an OTF shall also put in place the necessary arrangements to facilitate the efficient settlement of the transactions concluded under the systems of that MTF or OTF.

(2) Maltese investment firms and market operators operating an MTF or an OTF shall comply with articles 4F and 4G of the Financial Markets Act and have in place all the necessary effective systems, procedures and arrangements to do so.

(3) MTFs and OTFs shall have at least three materially active members or users, each having the opportunity to interact with all the others in respect to price formation.

(4) Where a transferable security that has been admitted to trading on a regulated market is also traded on an MTF or an OTF without the consent of the issuer, the issuer shall not be subject to any obligation relating to initial, ongoing or financial disclosure ad hoc with regard to that MTF or an OTF.

(5) Any Maltese investment firm and market operator operating an MTF or an OTF shall comply immediately with any instruction from the competent authority, pursuant to the applicable provisions of the Acts and the Malta Financial Services Authority Act, to suspend or remove a financial instrument from trading.

(6) Maltese investment firms and market operators operating an MTF or an OTF shall provide the competent authority with a detailed description of the functioning of the MTF or the OTF, including, without prejudice to regulations 5(1), and (6) to (8), any links to or participation by a regulated market, an MTF, an OTF or a systematic internaliser owned by the same Maltese investment firm or market operator, and a list of their members, participants and, or users.

(7) The competent authority shall make the information referred to in sub-regulation (6) available to ESMA on request.

(8) The competent authority shall notify ESMA of every authorisation granted to a Maltese investment firm or a market operator to operate an MTF or an OTF.